Issue(s): Journey Into Mystery #109
Cover Date: Oct 64
Title: "When Magneto Strikes!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Chic Stone - Inker

Review/plot:
Magneto is in his submarine which is disguised as a piece of driftwood. He's after the X-Men. Magneto says he's long suspected they were based in the New York metropolitan area and it's confirmed by the "mental emanations" getting stronger the closer he gets to the city.

He sends off the Brotherhood while he stays back and messes with New Yorkers by magnetizing everything. By sitting in a giant horseshoe magnet, natch.

Before the Brotherhood leaves, there is this exchange (essentially):

Scarlet Witch: It will be a relief to get away from that evil creature [Magneto] for a while!
Magneto: I'm standing right here!

But Magneto is unfazed: "But I ask not for friendship, or love! All I demand is fear, and blind obedience!". I love Silver Age Magneto.

Thor shows up to investigate all this magnetizing nonsense. I was expecting a little bit more of a fight, but Thor is a bit overwhelming to the poor guy. Magneto throws everything he's got at him, but Thor just keeps coming after him like a monster in a horror movie, trash-talking the entire time (Best line: "Is this how to punish Thor, evil braggart?? By fleeing from him??").

The only "suspense" is when Thor accidentally drops his hammer for more than a minute, turning back into lame Don Blake. In the end Magneto runs off like a kid who picked a fight with the school bully without realizing what he was getting himself into.

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood* get beat-up by the X-Men, but the X-Men are never seen on screen (Angel, Beast, and Iceman are identifiable).

*Magneto never refers to his team as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. That seems to be an invention of the press, first seen in a newspaper headline in Strange Tales #120. When he's trying to recruit Thor (he assumes Thor is a mutant), he refers to his "mutant brotherhood". If Magneto wasn't such a psychopath, you could almost believe that he really did represent a more militant advocate of mutant rights instead of a super-villain. On the other hand, the pitch he makes to Thor has a lot more to do with riches and power than mutant rights, but to be fair, when someone dresses as gaudily as Thor, you make certain assumptions. You have to tailor your pitch to your audience.

Aside: In Secret Wars #1, Magneto, placed on the same side as the heroes, tells them that he's better than any of them, and then quickly amends, "Save perhaps Thor." I like to think when he adds that it's because he's remembering the ass-whooping Thor handed him here. But no, i didn't increase the Historical Significance Rating because of that.

In this issue's Tales of Asgard, Thor is banished from Asgard by Odin, but it turns out to be a ruse to lure out a traitor and defeat the Mountain Giants.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3

Chronological Placement Considerations: Magneto and the X-Men appear here between Uncanny X-Men #6 and #7.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I believe Cyclops's optic blast makes an appearance in this issue as well. Only Marvel Girl's powers don't make an appearance.

X-Men Origins: Jean Grey #1 seems to explain what she was up to during this mission.

Magneto trying to make Thor a part of the Brotherhood...why does this feel foreshadowing for the Stranger?

Has Magneto offering Brotherhood membership to ANYONE worked out? At best, they just suck, but at worst, they beat him up.

I always liked this on because of the Thor Magneto battle. I wonder how this would go now because Magneto has been portrayed as much more powerful than he was in those days. Of course, Thor's hammer would still make the difference.

The Marvel Chronology Project gives Cyclops an Off Panel appearance here because of his optic blast (same as Iceman for his ice?). He isn't tagged in your Characters Appearing list.

I've added him. Thanks.